Everybody likes to watch different elements in the preseason. Here are the top 5 guys that I’ll have my eye on tonight:
RGIII
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He won’t play much… it might be vanilla… he might hand the ball off half the time or more. Does any of that really matter?
Absolutely not. A new era begins for Washington tonight. Regardless of the lack of importance of the performance or the results, don’t try to tell me that Robert Griffin III isn’t the numero uno thing to watch tonight.
I’ll be watching him even when he’s done playing and just standing on the sidelines. So will you.
Alfred Morris
So far he has impressed and nobody loves pulling a surprise running back out of the late rounds, more than Mike Shanahan; so I’m excited to see what the young man can do. Coming from a small program, and having ‘only practiced’ at an NFL level, I’ll be interested to see what he can do at full speed. It’s reasonable to assume that Tim Hightower will be nursed back from his knee injury accordingly, and the Redskins have a pretty good idea what they have in Evan Royster and Roy Helu Jr. so I expect a pretty heavy dose of Morris tonight.
Keenan Robinson
A lot of the defensive side of the ball is pretty much a foregone conclusion, but I’m looking forward to watching the young man from Texas University in his first game action. London Fletcher might only have about 10 years left in him, so the Redskins need to start grooming an inside linebacker. Hopefully Robinson can be that player and can begin that journey tonight against the Bills. For the record, I’m not putting replacing Fletch on Robinson anyway… I expect Perry Riley to pick up where he left off last year, and continue to grow in this defense.
Josh LeRibeus
Some draft ‘experts’ have questioned how high he was drafted. It would seem from most reports, that so far he has impressed during training camp; but how will he fare when the guy across from him isn’t his teammate? I think he will do very well, and he’s on my list more because I actually expect that he might be contributing both earlier than anticipated, and earlier than perhaps you would typically like a rookie to have to contribute. The Redskins are already having some injury issues along the offensive line, so if LeRibeus can make a mark during the preseason, Redskins Nation might see him in action sooner than later in the regular season.
Kevin Barnes
I thought Barnes struggled last year, and I’m anxious to see the effect that Raheem Morris has had on him. It would seem that the Redskins are hoping that Barnes can move out of the nickel and into the limelight so to speak, so I’ll be watching his coverage early on against the Bills’ top receivers. The Redskins secondary could use a bigger body CB to defend against some of the league’s bigger receivers, so if Barnes CAN meet the challenge, Morris will have a much more well-rounded secondary to work his magic with.
The only other thing I will be watching is my alcohol consumption.
Pace yourself.
We’ve been off for a few months.
Haven’t we?
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